Defective verb
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In linguistics, a defective verb is a verb with an incomplete conjugation. Defective verbs cannot be conjugated in certain tenses, aspects, or moods.
[edit] Defective verbs in English
In the English language there are few defective verbs. One case is the class of modal auxiliary verbs: "can", "may", "will", "must", and so on. These verbs lack several forms. Most notably, despite all having present indicatives, in Standard English they do not have infinitives (*to can, *to shall), participles (*am canning, *am shalling, *have musted), imperatives (*Can!), or present subjunctives (*It be can done). Additionally, the third-person singular present lacks the -s common to other verbs ("he can", not "*he cans"; "he ought", not "*he oughts"). (The archaic pronoun "thou" takes an inflected verb: "thou canst", "thou wilt".) In place of the missing forms, speakers substitute a non-defective phrase with a similar meaning. *to must → "to have to", *to can → "to be able to", *to should → "to be supposed to". In the present tense "I must wash the window" and "I have to wash the window" are interchangeable, but in the future tense "I will have to wash the window" is the only choice.
Most other defective verbs in English are only partially defective; typically, a certain verb construction will be possible only with a certain form of a verb, such as its plain form. For example, the verb try often appears in the construction try and <verb> (meaning try to <verb>), but only in its plain form: "I try and do it every week" is possible, but *"She tries and does it every week" (or *"She tries and do it every week") is not. Sometimes it is another form that is permitted; for example, the verb be often appears in the construction been to <place> (meaning visited <place>), but only in its perfect aspect: "I've been to Paris" is possible, but *"I'll be to Paris" is not. Similarly, the verb beware (originally formed from the verb be and the now archaic adjective ware) appears only in its plain form: "Let the buyer beware" is possible, but *"That buyer bewares" is not.
[edit] Impersonal verbs in English
Impersonal verbs such as "rain" and "snow" share some characteristics with the defective verbs in that conjugations such as "I rain" or "they snow" are not often found; however, the crucial distinction is that impersonal verbs are "missing" certain forms for semantic reasons — in other words, the forms themselves exist and the verb is capable of being fully conjugated with all its forms (and is therefore not defective) but some forms are unlikely to be found because they appear meaningless. Nevertheless, it is possible to imagine metaphorical or even literal sentences where the "meaningless" forms can be found, e.g.
- I rained on his parade.
- I tried to help by clearing their drive but instead I snowed them in.
Contrast the impersonal verb "rain" (where all the forms exist but look semantically odd) with the defective verb "shall" (where only "I shall" and "I should" are possible):
| to rain | *to shall | |
| I rain | I shall | |
| I am raining | *I am shalling | |
| I have rained | *I have shalled/should | |
| I rained | I should |
[edit] Defective verbs in Latin
Latin has defective verbs that possess forms only in the perfect tense system; such verbs have no present tense forms whatsoever. However, these verbs are present in meaning. For example, the first-person form odi and infinitive odisse appear to be the perfect tense of a verb such as *odo, but in fact have the present-tense meaning "I hate". Similarly, the verb memini, meminisse is conjugated in the perfect:
- meminī
- meministī
- meminit
- meminimus
- meministis
- meninērunt
Instead of "I remembered", "you remembered", etc., these forms signify "I remember", "you remember", etc. Latin defective verbs also possess regularly formed pluperfect forms (with a simple past tense meaning) and future perfect forms (with a simple future tense meaning). Compare deponent verbs, which are passive in form and active in meaning.
[edit] Examples from other languages
- French: frire (lacks a passé simple), éclore (lacks an imperfect)
- Spanish: abolir (this is disputed, but some contend that there is no *él abole, for example)
- Polish: widać, słychać (the only form of these verbs that exists is the infinitive)
- Portuguese: a large number of Portuguese verbs are defective in person, i.e., they lack the proper form for one of the pronouns in some tense. The verb colorir ("to color") has no first person singular in the present (thus requiring a paraphrase, like estou colorindo ("I am coloring") of the use of another verb of similar meaning, like pintar ("to paint").
- Dutch: in Dutch there are four defective verbs (apart from deponent verbs and impersonal verbs): plegen (to be used to), zullen (shall), zijn (to be) and wezen (to be). The verbs zullen and plegen do not have any perfect tenses. Furthermore, zullen does not have any future and past future tenses, and its conditional mood does not exist. The verbs zijn and wezen are used to complete each other's conjugation. A part from the infinitive (zijn versus wezen (to be)) and gerund (het zijn versus het wezen ((the) being)), only the simple present subjunctives of both verbs exists (ik zij versus ik weze (I be)). For all other forms there only exists one form:e.g. zijnde (being) (present participle of zijn), ik was (I was) (indicative past simple of wezen). (See Dutch conjugation)
